1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method and apparatus of collecting, storing and transmitting solar heat and more particularly relates to a method and apparatus for heating building structures and the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The tremendous energy output of the sun has been recognized for many years and numerous attempts have been made at harnassing this energy so that it can be converted into a useful state. For example, the sun's energy has been successfully converted into electrical energy with solar batteries and similarly, the sun's energy has been converted into heating systems by so-called solar stoves, furnaces and the like. The solar furnace apparatusses, however, have been typified by extremely large collector plates covering large portions of the roof structure of a building to be heated with the apparatus and large storage chambers usually in the substructure of the building wherein the heat is stored after having been transferred from the collector by a liquid fluid medium. The heat in the storage chamber is then circulated through the building structure by a separate fluid flow.
These systems, which have not only been unwieldly and very expensive to install, have proven to be very inefficient in that there is an excessive heat loss when transferring the solar heat from the collector to the removed storage chamber. Furthermore, these systems have not been capable of being easily installed in existing building structures and have not been devised to cooperate as an auxiliary heating unit to the conventional forced air heating systems commonly found in building structures.
Typical examples of prior art solar heating systems may be found in the June, 1973 and October, 1973 issues of Popular Mechanics magazine and in the May, 1973 issue of Popular Science magazine.